ESPN’s Scoop Jackson wrote a fine piece detailing why Kobe Bryant will not win the MVP award this season.
Truth is Kobe Bryant will never win the MVP of the league. He is hated too much. Hated by those who cast votes. Hated too much by those he plays against. And the two All-Star Game MVPs he’s won, well, they don’t count in this scenario. Voting Kobe as the best basketball player in the world for a day is one thing, honoring him with that same title for an entire season … in the infamous words of Bobby Brown’s ex-wife: “Oh, hell to the No!”
Writers won’t honor Kobe like that, not even when in good consciousness they want to or would like to. As one writer said to me when the subject was brought up in conversation, very apropos for an election year, “Kobe’s electability quotient is zero.” In other words, he’s Ralph Nader.
Bryant had two terrific back-to-back seasons (in ’05-’06 and ’06-’07) but wasn’t a strong MVP candidate because the Lakers didn’t win enough games. (The last player to win the MVP on a team with fewer than 50 wins was Moses Malone in the 1981-82 season.) This season, his Lakers have their 50 wins – 53 and counting, to be exact – but Jackson argues that the amount of hatred that Kobe generates from those that vote (the media) ensures that he will not be winning the award this season.
In truth, Kobe is probably the most talented player in the NBA. But this doesn’t make him the MVP. I have a buddy who is a diehard Laker fan and we debate this endlessly. But I always come back to the same point – to be the best you can’t pull the kind of stuff Kobe pulls off the court. You have to be a good teammate, and by most accounts, Kobe is not. So, to me, being the most talented and being the best are two different things.
This is why Chris Paul will be the NBA MVP. No one saw the Hornets’ amazing season coming and Paul is the main reason why New Orleans is so good. The Hornets currently have the best record in the West and Paul’s numbers – 21.5 ppg, 11.5 apg, 4.0 rpg, 2.7 apg – are better than the numbers Steve Nash posted in the ’04-’05 and the ’05-’06 seasons. Moreover, Paul is universally considered a good guy, and the media likes him. (Kevin Garnett is the darkhorse, but his stats – 18.9 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.3 bpg – aren’t eye-popping.) If Paul’s assist numbers weren’t so gaudy or if the Hornets were in the fifth spot in the West instead of first, Kobe would have a better shot, but given Kobe’s reputation (and offseason temper tantrum), I don’t see the media awarding him with the MVP.
Is this fair? Not entirely, but Kobe made his bed and now he has to lie in it.
